MOBILE, Alabama – McGill-Toolen’s track and field team motto is “addicted to inspiration.” Dante Piccini embodies everything that entails.

The Yellow Jacket senior started running as a sophomore in the midst of undergoing chemotherapy treatments for acute lymphocytic leukemia.

“We are always looking for the kid who inspires us,” McGill-Toolen track coach Drew Bentley said. “As coaches, we’re limited in the ways we can inspire our athletes. In fact, we coach to be inspired. Dante is like the golden goose.

“With or without athletic ability – and he does have athletic ability – Dante Piccini is still the most important person on our team.”

When Piccini joined the McGill track team, he could barely walk the warm-up routine. This spring, he ran the mile in less than five minutes for the first time, and he has done it on several occasions in competition.

Recently, he was selected as a regional winner in the Bryant-Jordan Scholarship Program’s Achievement category, which recognizes athletes who succeed despite overcoming personal obstacles. He won a $2,500 scholarship and could win more at the statewide banquet April 14 in Birmingham.

“I have never known a more driven young man,” McGill-Toolen athletic director Bill Griffin wrote in a narrative of support for Piccini’s Bryant-Jordan nomination. “Dante’s attitude and work ethic inspire those around him. His classmates are better students because of him. Those of us who are fortunate to know him are better people because of him.”

The journey begins

At 12, Piccini seemed like any other seventh-grader.

He played organized soccer and was a casual runner, though he didn’t participate on a team at that time. He is the second oldest of five boys born to Jeno and Shari Piccini. His oldest brother is Silvio. His younger brothers are Ronnie, Joey and Dominic.

One day after soccer practice, Dante complained to his parents that he was tired.

“Well, they had just had a two-hour practice, so at that time I didn’t think much about it,” said Shari Piccini, a librarian and teacher. “But a couple of days later he came out and said look at this. He had these huge lymph nodes sticking out of his neck. He looked like Frankenstein. Even with five boys, I had never seen anything like that before.”

The Piccinis immediately took Dante to the doctor. At first glance, doctors suggested mononucleosis as the likely diagnosis, but ordered blood tests while telling the family it would be OK for the Piccinis to take a planned spring break trip to visit relatives in Miami.

“So we left, we had Easter and everything was fine,” Shari said. “Dante didn’t feel really bad. He just had these things sticking out of his neck. I didn’t hear from them about the blood work for a week or so. I called back and they said it didn’t show mono. They weren’t sure what it was, but they didn’t think it was anything too bad.”

They were wrong.

There was a time when chemotherapy had weakened Dante Piccini's body so much that he couldn't walk up a hill near his house. (Sharon Steinmann | ssteinmann@al.com)

Dante's diagnosis

Dante ran a fever that night in Miami, and the next day became very agitated.

“He said he just didn’t feel right,” Shari said. “He had red dots all over his back. Again, it was something I had never seen before.”

The Piccinis had a friend who worked at the Children’s Hospital in Miami and took Dante there. Again, blood tests were ordered, with quick, conclusive results.

“They weren’t gone 25 minutes,” Shari said. “They came back and pulled his Dad and I out in the hallway and said, ‘We don’t know what kind, but we know he has leukemia. There is no doubt.’”

Dante’s treatment started that night.

The date is ingrained in his mind and that of his parents: April 16, 2009.

“When they pulled us out in the hall, we knew,” Shari said. “It was surreal. You go from one minute being the mother of five boys, being a part of what you would consider a normal life, then all of the sudden you are the mother of a child with cancer. It was just a very strange and gut-wrenching feeling.”

The outlook wasn’t as dire as it could have been. Shari said doctors told the family Dante had an 80-to-85 percent chance of survival. They started him on a regimented chemotherapy routine that eventually lasted three and a half years.

He stayed in Miami for three weeks as the treatments began, then returned to Mobile. Dante had as many as five treatments a week at one point and lost 15 percent of his body weight.

By his 13th birthday on July 1, his hair was gone. He also had eight doses of radiation to his brain to make sure the cancer had not spread there.

Returning to school

Dante skipped his entire eighth-grade year of school, basically teaching himself at home. As a freshman, he enrolled at McGill-Toolen.

“When I think back on it now, I remember one particularly depressing time,” Dante said. “We have a hill right behind our house. I remember running up that hill easily. It wasn’t that steep. You might feel it in your legs a little bit, but not that bad. At this particular time, I was with my friend one day, and we were walking up that hill.

“Well, he was walking up it,” Dante continued. “I literally had to get down on my hands and knees and crawl up it. I just could not do it. I felt terrible.”

Piccini enrolled in physical education as a freshman at McGill – his first exercise attempt of any kind since his diagnosis. Griffin was his teacher.

“You would have never guessed that Dante was a cancer survivor,” Griffin wrote in his letter. “He was active and always participated in class. He often would miss class on Monday to receive his chemotherapy treatment, but he always returned the next day ready to participate in spite of the toll that treatment had taken on his body.”

Joining the track team

In the spring of his sophomore year – still undergoing chemotherapy – Dante joined the track team. Bentley said Piccini’s track experience began by walking 25 yards in the grass back and forth while the rest of the team went through normal workouts.

“I thought he was going to quit,” Bentley said. “I have had people who have come out for the team and quit not having gone through anything like Dante was going through. But he stayed with it and slowly got stronger.”

Dante worked until he could participate in a junior varsity meet. His finish that day wasn’t astounding. The fact that he did finish was.

“I remember at dinner that night we were having a conversation,” Shari said. “Dante’s brothers are all athletic and used to doing well and winning. I remember that night they asked, ‘Did Dante win?’ Dante just shook his head no. ‘Did Dante come in last?’ We said yes. And they were just like, ‘OK,’ and continued eating.”

Piccini’s chemotherapy treatments ended in August 2012 before the start of his junior year. He still goes in every eight weeks for bloodwork, but there’s been no trace of the cancer returning.

Dante ran cross country, indoor track and outdoor track in his junior year, steadily improving his time in the 1,600-meter run. At the end of his junior year, he ran the mile in 5:19. That improvement has continued this year. He reached a personal best of 4:55 in the Fast Times meet at UMS-Wright earlier this spring.

“I always say to Dante now, ‘Did you ever think in a million years it was conceivable that you would run the mile in under five minutes?’” Bentley said. “Even he says no. He was living day-by-day then. When it finally happened, the whole team was cheering him on.”

Through it all, Piccini also has maintained his academic work. He currently maintains a 4.14 grade point average and plans to attend South Alabama next year and study political science and public administration.

Is life finally back to normal for the Piccinis?

“I think so,” Shari said. “Yes.”

For Dante, beating cancer obviously has been a life-altering experience.

“It’s kind of part of who I am now,” he said. “It’s a part of my identity that I’ve had cancer. I know what it’s like for all the people who have had it or are dealing with it now. Yes, it’s a big deal. I just tried to do my best in everything I could do to get through it. I hope it will make me stronger going forward.”